This invention relates to disintegrating apparatuses, and more particularly relates to an apparatus which is especially (but not exclusively) adapted for the disintegration of bale-like masses of waste textile strand material that includes polyester, nylon and/or other synthetic textile strands which have tensile strength of large magnitude and which frequently also are of considerable length.
As employed herein, the appellation "textile strand material" is meant to encompass all manner of natural or synthetic fibers, filaments, slivers, rovings and yarns, as well as all combinations of any of the foregoing, such as "composite" or "core" yarns incorporating both filamentary strands and spun-staple fibers, tow, smaller "bundles" of texturized or untexturized filaments, etc.
Prior patents of possible relevance to the present invention, or to its background, include the following: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,941,530, 3,900,920, 3,886,629, 3,797,073, 3,736,624, 3,676,991, 3,663,993, 3,653,094, 3,443,285, 3,099,047, 3,040,387, 2,241,151, 2,205,666, 1,340,201, 188,928 and 20,677; French Pat. No. 814,365 and German Pat. No. 325,207.
Numerous so-called "bale pluckers" or other apparatuses have heretofore been devised for the purpose of disintegrating bales, cheeses or similar masses of natural textile fibers, such as cotton or wool, or of synthetic textile fibers comprised of "staplized" synthetic filaments. Fibers of the aforesaid type are relatively short, their maximum length usually being no more than four to five inches and frequently much less, and the tensile strength, both of the individual fibers and of the nonintegrated groupings or "tufts" of adjacent ones of them, is relatively small. Additionally, the bales comprised of such fibers usually possess approximately equal characteristics of density, composition and the like throughout either their entire extent or, if such bales are of "layered" construction, throughout at least each of their individual layers. Bales of the foregoing composition and construction may be and are readily disintegrated by known "bale plucking" apparatuses, many of which employ at least one rapidly-rotating "plucker roll" having peripheral teeth or pins which engage a surface of the bale and readily withdrawn discrete "tufts" of fiber therefrom.
Quite different considerations are presented by bales or similar masses of waste textile strand material of the type inadvertently but regularly produced, as a waste by-product of their normal operations, by manufacturers of synthetic filaments and by throwsters, textile mills and similar organizations which process and/or use such filaments in the manufacture of yarns or other products. Waste material of the aforesaid type may include at least some amount of relatively short strands, consisting of "staplized" filament or of natural fibers or of a combination of the foregoing, either in discrete form or in the form of roving, sliver or the like of low tensile strength. However, a significant portion and usually the vast majority of the waste strand material will consist of such things as single or multiple-ply yarn spun in whole or in part from "staplized" synthetic filaments; filamentary, and/or "core" yarns formed in whole or in part from continuous filaments; and other continuous-filament "bundles", such as tow, whose dimensions may approach those possessed by ropes and cables. Such strand material has a tensile strength of large magnitude: Some of it will withstand an applied tensile force of thousands of pounds, and may also undergo great elongation, before breaking. Apart from the possibility of its further elongation by stretching, at least some of the waste strand material also will usually be of considerable length in its unstretched form: i.e., its length will be many feet, or even hundreds of yards, as opposed to the much smaller length of natural fibers and of "staplized" filaments. Additionally, when waste strand material is set aside for eventual reclamation, it normally is not arranged in any type of orderly fashion, but rather is merely tossed or otherwise casually deposited into a container or upon a pile until a mass of the desired quantity has been accumulated. Such mass may then be formed into a bale to facilitate its transport to a reclaimer of waste material, or may be delivered to a reclaimer in unbaled form. In either case the mass of strand material received by the waste-reclaimer will be of heterogeneous density and composition, and will include randomly-extending and intertangled textile strands of large-magnitude tensile strength and, in many cases, of considerable length.
Masses of strand material of the aforesaid type cannot be satisfactorily disintegrated by conventional "bale pluckers", including particularly those employing a rotatable "plucking roll" or similar instrumentality, such as an endless toothed apron driven in one direction along a closed loop-like path of travel, as the disintegrating instrumentality. Attempted use of conventional "bale pluckers" and similar apparatuses for the aforesaid purpose results not in disintegration of the mass of strand material, but rather in disintegration of the apparatuses themselves unless the latter are equipped with suitable stop-motion devices effective to halt their operation in response to the over-load stresses which are placed upon their components by strand material of the described type. In recognition of the foregoing fact, the now prevalant industry practice is for strand-masses of the type in question to be manually disintegrated or "picked-apart", by a person withdrawing successive hand-fulls and lengths of strand material from the mass and depositing the same in a strand-cutting device or other processing instrumentality, or upon a conveyor leading to such a device or other instrumentality. This approach is highly dangerous, inefficient and uneconomical, and significantly increases the cost of reclamation of the waste material. An alternative industry-approach problem has been to employ disintegrating apparatuses, for instance hammer-mills, which do not preserve the quality and character of the strand material and which so pulverize, heat and/or otherwise deteriorate the same as to render it suitable only for re-melting and re-extrusion, or for other limited and commercially less-valuable uses. This approach is also highly uneconomical since it results in complete loss of that portion of the value of the strand material attributable to the prior processing (e.g., extruding, drawing, texturizing, etc.) which it has undergone. Additionally, unless the supply hopper or the like of the hammer mill or other apparatus in question is of considerable size, some manual "picking-apart" of the mass of strand material is still necessary for introduction of the material into the apparatus.